Rural Payments and Services

This option aims to provide support for the creation of a long-term forest plan that sets out the management objectives for your woodland.

This is for the long-term management of woodlands over 10–20 years and is aimed at (but not limited to) woodlands over 100 hectares in size that have not previously had a long-term forest plan.

If your woodland is less than 100 hectares, we will accept applications for this Woodland Improvement Grant option if you intend to prepare a long-term forest plan to cover your felling activities.

We will pay this standard cost capital grant after we have approved the completed plan.

Your plan must capture your entire woodland holding, including young woodlands and areas planned for woodland creation.

However the payment of grant will be based on the area of woodland within the plan that has woodland cover of 10 years old and older.

This means we will exclude from grant payment woodland less than 10 years old or areas covered by a woodland creation live contract from a legacy scheme (where the conditions have yet to be met and / or final payments have yet to be made).

We will not pay grant for more than 20 per cent internal designed open ground in the areas eligible for grant payment. For example, if the woodland areas of 10 years old and older have greater than 20 per cent designed open ground attributed to them, we will cap the payment of this grant at a maximum 20 per cent of designed open ground.

The grant rate for a new long-term forest plan is:

• £25 per hectare for first 200 hectares
• £5 per hectare thereafter
• minimum £500, maximum £15,000

This grant support is to help cover all aspects of the long-term forest plan process including any necessary surveys (such as archaeological, historic environment, habitat, species and soils), scoping and site visits.

Please check that you are eligible to apply for Forestry Grant Scheme funding before you begin your application.

Woodland Improvement Grant

Please see the supporting information section below for the information you need to supply us when applying for this option.

Include all woodland on your property. Where woodlands are geographically separate parcels we may permit more than one plan.

Historical land splits will be taken into consideration but will not necessarily be endorsed for this Woodland Improvement Grant. Please discuss this with your Forestry Commission Scotland woodland officer.

Payment is based on the total area of woodland within the plan, including felled areas due to be restocked and open ground up to 20 per cent of the total long-term forest plan area.

You must include any woodland younger than ten years old, or any area planned for woodland creation, in the long-temr forest plan but we will exclude these areas from the payment area.

Do not include areas of open hillside or farmland unless you intend to expand your woodland by natural regeneration. These areas will not receive payment, but include them in the detail of the long-term forest plan.

Your plan must show the areas of felling, thinning and restructuring that you intend to carry out over ten years and for which you would like approval. The plan should also outline proposals for a 20-year period.

Long-term forest plans must comply with the UK Forestry Standard.

You must carry out operations that are eligible for grant support within the first phase of the plan approval period.

You must carry out the plan process as outlined in the Long-term Forest Plan technical guidance.

To help us assess your application, you must provide us with supporting information.

Please provide maps that clearly show:

• the perimeter of the plan area
• key issues and actions that you will address in the long-term forest plan – this is the concept map

The concept map must also show the areas that need felling approval during the period of the plan.

General mapping guidance for the Forestry Grant Scheme

To make sure we achieve the best value for money and to ensure we meet the scheme’s objectives, we assess each application using scoring criteria. These criteria differ depending on the option.

We will set a minimum score that an application for any particular option must achieve to be considered for approval. We will make details available before the start of the scheme.

You can submit a capital claim once we have approved your completed plan.

You cannot make a claim for an area that exceeds that agreed in your contract. You must claim for the areas as detailed in your schedule of works. For example, you cannot make an interim claim for part of the area shown on a single line of your schedule of works.

• Long-term Forest Plan technical guidance
• UK Forestry Standard